There is a trend in the death care industry to make efforts towards “personalizing” the funeral products and the funeral or other services purchased for the deceased to provide a more meaningful burial service experience for the family and friends of the deceased. Oftentimes, there is a desire on the part of the deceased's family and loved ones to memorialize the faithfully departed. This may manifest itself in several ways such as, for example, displaying various religious or sentimental items close to or on the casket during viewing of the deceased or even placing items in the casket prior to interment of the casket into the ground. The display and/or storage of various items of personality near or in caskets has existed as a means to memorialize the deceased.
One of the earlier attempts at providing a means of personalizing or customizing a casket to the deceased may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,054 titled Casket Shelf. That patent discloses a casket shelf which is mounted to the dish assembly of the head end cap when the head end cap is in the open position, such as during viewing of the deceased. The shelf provides a surface for supporting and displaying articles of religious or personal significance to the deceased. Additionally, the assignee's pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/788,769 filed on Feb. 20, 2001 and titled Memorialization Casket discloses an alcove structure having a recess for mounting and displaying an ornament as a means of memorializing the deceased.
Furthermore, many current caskets do not provide any designated, easily accessibly receptacle or compartment for either the display of personal effects of the deceased therein or the inclusion therein of mementos of memorialization by the deceased's family and friends. Prior attempts at solving this shortcoming have generally taken the form of the placement of a small memento box into the casket alongside the deceased. However, such memento boxes often appear as an afterthought, simply placed alongside the deceased in the casket somewhat haphazardly. A casket having a memorabilia compartment integral to the casket for storing mementos and other items of memorabilia may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,124 titled Casket Having Memorabilia Compartment. Caskets having a memorabilia compartment or drawer in which keepsakes of the deceased can be stored and displayed are commercially available as the MemorySafe® line of caskets available from Batesville®.
Advances have therefore been made in the area of “personalization” of funeral products by displaying and storing memorabilia, as demonstrated by the patents and products discussed above. However, there continues to be room for improvement in the area of providing caskets with memorabilia display and storage.